‘Pilgrimage’ for Andrew Butler From Prison to Federal Court Set For Thursday in Concord

Nancy West Photos

By Nancy West May 23, 2018

Photos of the Secure Psychiatric Unit of the State Prison for Men in Concord. Top left photo shows metal booths where some mentally ill patients receive group therapy. Top right shows a typical cell at SPU. Below photo shows the prison fencing outside the unit.

CONCORD — Supporters are holding a walk from the state prison in Concord to the federal courthouse for Andrew Butler of Hollis and other prisoners at the Secure Psychiatric Unit of the men’s prison on Thursday starting at 9 a.m., according to an American Friends Service Committee news release.

Called the Pilgrimage for Dignity, Compassion, and Justice, the walk will start across the street from the men’s prison on North State Street at 9 a.m. with Butler’s father, Douglas Butler, and Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, making brief statements.

The two-mile walk will proceed south with a brief stop at the State House at 9:45 a.m. then proceed to the U.S. District Court at 55 Pleasant Street by 10:45 a.m. Speakers outside the courthousewill likely include former Secure Psychiatric Unit prisoners and family members of people who have been held there, the release said.

The walk is scheduled to coincide with a hearing inside the courthouse on Andrew Butler’s habeas corpus petition demanding to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital because he isn’t charged with or been convicted of a crime. Douglas Butler said previously that his son had interactions with the Hollis police in December, but any charges were dismissed.

The public court hearing is set for 11 a.m.

Andrew Butler, a 21-year-old resident of Hollis, was committed to the New Hampshire Hospital, the state’s psychiatric hospital, in the fall of 2017. From there, he was sent to the Secure Psychiatric Unit at the prison.

“He is held as a mental health patient without being in an accredited hospital, denied contact visits with his father, denied contact visits with his attorney, forced to wear prison clothing,” his attorney Sandra Bloomenthal wrote in the habeas corpus petition filed in federal court. “He is locked down 23 hours a day. He has been tasered. The treatment he has received is cruel and unusual punishment without having been convicted of a crime and with no pending criminal process.”